Page 112 of Fall Over You

“Actually, it’s kind of good that he’s gone. Mr. Davis, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure thing. Ellie, go have some of Papaw’s pretzels while I talk to your ma—I mean. Becca.” He lowers his voice. “What does she call you?”

“Just Becca for now. If she ever wants to call me something else, that’ll be fine too.”

He nods. “What’s up? You two coming for Sunday dinner this week?”

“Yes, but isn’t it Tyler’s birthday on Friday?”

Mr. Davis chuckles. “He hasn’t said a word about it, has he?”

I roll my eyes. “Of course not. I thought I remembered that it’s on Friday, but I wasn’t bold enough to check his driver’s license. He’s so weird about it.”

He checks to make sure Ellie’s occupied and eyes me carefully. “Well, he never was big on his birthday, but now he kind of has good reason. CJ OD’d on his birthday a few years back.”

I gasp and my hand jumps to cover my mouth. “Oh no. Oh god. How awful.”

My heart breaks for CJ, but even more for Tyler. I wonder what condition he found her in, what he did with Ellie. Whether she took extra because of what day it was or whether it was just an accident.

I feel worse that it’s the first I’m hearing of it, but I guess we’ve only been back in each other’s lives for a few months. I’m surprised Dusty didn’t mention it, though.

“Yeah. Dusty knows not to touch it with a ten-foot pole, and his mom always just makes a quiet dinner at home. It’s a hard day for him.”

I shake my head and cross my arms, chewing my thumbnail. “Gosh, I was about to plan him a surprise party, but I don’t want to make it worse.”

Mr. Davis fidgets with the wrench in his hand. “You’ve been so good for him, though. A fresh start. Maybe he just needs some new happy memories to cover up the old bad ones.”

“That’s kind of what I was thinking,” I say. “I didn’t know about the overdose, though.”

He tosses a hand. “I wouldn’t let that stop you. It’s time he accepted how many people love him. Sometimes you have to do that kind of stuff by force. A birthday party might be just the thing he doesn’t know he needs.”

I chew my lip, hoping this is all the right answer. “What kind of cake is his favorite? I make him banana bread all the time, but I figure cake is a different category.”

Mr. Davis chuckles. “For that, I think you’ll have to call his mom.”

FORTY-THREE

TYLER

This is what all those country songs were talking about.

Not the ones about beer and heartache and Mama and trains. The ones about turning into a complete slipping-on-banana-peels goober when you fall in love.

I’ve never been like this in my whole entire life. If I weren’t my own boss, I’d get fired for how much I’m dreamily zoning out while under cars. Becca’s started a new tradition of dropping by the shop after she picks up Ellie from school just to give me a kiss.

She’s got shit to do and so do I, but she takes that extra ten minutes to see me before we get back to the madness.

I love it.

My life is a steady rhythm of cars, blueberry muffins, banana bread, workday kisses, cottage labor, and spending as much time as possible with that head of blonde hair who stole my heart.

There’s nobody to convince anymore. We pulled off the heist so hard it came true. I’m barely recognizable, to myself, to the people around me, and while I’ve still got deep bags under my eyes, I’ve got a goofy smile you couldn’t kill if you tried.

I’m usually in a bad mood in October. It’s my birthday month, and since I’ve been older, it’s just not as much fun as it once was.

Not to mention what happened on my twenty-fifth birthday.

Instead of coming home to a cake and a present or two, I came home to CJ passed out for who knows how long.